REGION: Vista, Oceanside, Escondido among top homeless populations in area

GARY WARTH gwarth@nctimes.com

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About 18 percent of homeless people in the county live in North County, with the largest population in Vista, according to a recently released report by the
Regional Task Force on the Homeless
.

Jennifer Litwak, manager of projects and development for the task force, said the report shows an increase of about 7.7 percent over last year's numbers, but data still is being analyzed for a final April 30 report about an annual count of homeless people, conducted this year on Jan. 27.

Although this year's count showed an increase over last year, Task Force Executive Director Peter Callstrom said that could be the result of refined methods used by volunteers and organizers.

The count included hundreds of people living in "transitional housing programs" ---- long-term programs designed to help people permanently escape homelessness. It also included people living in their cars, on the street in emergency winter shelters.

The most recent report shows about 9,700 homeless people in the county, an increase of 7.7 percent over last year's count of 9,020. Of those, 4,500 people were counted in shelters, an 11.4 increase over last year's count of 4,039 in shelters.

The count found 983 people in inland North County, accounting for 10.1 percent of the overall number of the county's homeless. It also found 762 homeless people in coastal North County, accounting for 7.8 percent of the total.

The largest number of homeless people in the county was found in the city of San Diego, which had 6,380 people, or 65.6 percent of the total.

Behind San Diego, Chula Vista and El Cajon, Vista had the largest number of homeless people with 493 individuals, including 405 sheltered and 88 unsheltered. The sheltered population included 340 people living in transitional housing programs and 65 staying in an emergency winter shelter in Vista.

In 2011, there were 431 homeless people counted in Vista.

Oceanside had the next highest number of homeless people in the count, with 219 unsheltered and 262 sheltered, including 204 in transitional housing and 58 in an emergency winter shelter.

The 481 homeless people in Oceanside this year is an increase over the 452 found in the city last year.

Escondido had 411 homeless people this year, including 127 unsheltered and 284 in shelters. Of those in shelters, 209 were in transitional housing, 65 were in an emergency shelter and 10 were in a safe haven.

The city had the largest number of homeless people in North County last year, with 467.

Encinitas had 89 unsheltered homeless people and 65 sheltered people this year. The 154 homeless people in Encinitas this year was 30 less than the total counted last year.

Carlsbad had 48 sheltered and 62 unsheltered homeless people in this year's count, or 27 more than last year.

San Marcos had 37 homeless people this year, while last year only one homeless person was counted in the city.

Solana Beach had 15 people in this year's count, eight more than last year, and Poway had seven homeless people this year, eight less than last year.

Only two homeless people were counted in Del Mar this year; 11 were counted last year.

In unincorporated areas, the count found nine homeless people in Fallbrook and four homeless people in Bonsall this year.

In other findings in this year's report, 76 percent unsheltered homeless people were male, 68 percent were white, 18 percent were veterans and 70 percent had a high school or college education, and 32 had a four-year degree.

The report also found 69 percent of unsheltered homeless people had been homeless for more than a year, 64 percent had substance abuse problems, 59 percent had mental health issues, 57 percent had been in an emergency room in the past year and 25 percent had mobility limitations.